Price of Stamps Is Going Down, but the USPS Isn’t Excited About It

If you still prefer regular mail instead of email, you’re in luck. The price of mailing is going down starting April 10.

The price of a first-class stamp will lower by two cents, costing 47 cents. Letters to all international destinations will go from $1.20 to $1.15, and postcards will decrease from 35 cents to 34 cents.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is not happy about the decrease in rates. The USPS does not recieve tax dollars for operating costs. The system relies on revenue from postage, products and services.

Given our precarious financial condition and ongoing business needs, the price reduction required by the PRC exacerbates our losses.

— Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan

The price reduction is the repercussion of an expiring surcharge that had been put into effect in January 2014. The move was supposed to help the struggling Postal Service bounce back from the $4.6 billion in losses dating back to the Great Recession.

Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan says the forced reduction of mailing prices would exacerbate Postal Service losses. The agency estimates it would lose $2 billion in annual revenue as a result of the move.